The Maritime and Coastguard Agency launches “Leading for safety”, a comprehensive guide to help leaders promote a safety culture on board.
As explained, a new tool to boost safety on vessels through effective leadership has been published by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).
This comprehensive ‘Leading for safety’ publication will provide leaders in the maritime sector with cutting edge guidance on how to create or enhance a culture of safety explaining how to implement standards through their leadership style.
Extensive consultation with industry allowed the MCA to explore all the different elements that affect safety and allow us to demonstrate how leaders are crucial with explanations on the use of human element principles such as self-awareness to create a culture of safety.
The safety of those at sea is our top priority at MCA and we know well how hard leaders in the sector work day and night to protect the public and their teams. This guidance acknowledges the real pressures seafarers face and provides practical guidance on how everyone can be led effectively to take responsibility for safety.
..Virginia McVea, Chief Executive Officer for the MCA said.
Creating a culture of safety
What you need to know to create a safety culture
Looking at why accidents happen, what really causes them and what we can do to create a safety culture in an organisation.
Safety culture describes the way in which safety is managed within an organisation. It relates to the beliefs and attitudes, values, and perceptions that employees share regarding safety in the organisation.
To reduce the rate of incidents, we need a good understanding of:
- why accidents happen
- what really causes them
- what kind of organisational culture can help to prevent them
It’s important to recognise that while individual behaviour is influenced by many factors, the behaviour is an emergent property of the organisation. The safety culture of an organisation has a big impact on the actions of its employees and how seriously they take safety. Poor safety culture has been linked to many incidents in the maritime industry.
Culture of compliance versus culture of continual improvement
When an organisation encourages continuous improvement, it strengthens its ability to deal effectively with inevitable incidents. The International Safety Management (ISM) Code is designed to encourage continual improvement – through the company’s safety management system (SMS), it encourages the self-regulation of safety. The critical link to accomplishing effective self-regulation is by setting safety goals and targets.
While a culture of compliance is certainly better than a culture of non-compliance, rules and regulations only define the minimum standards that should be met. In safety-critical organisations, new risks can arise at any moment.
Culture of continual improvement
An organisational culture that values continual improvement should constantly be seeking out information and ideas to improve safety onboard, to make risks in the working environment as low as reasonably practicable.
Continuous improvement means that:
- scenarios are anticipated and planned for in advance
- fewer emergency responses are needed as proactive management is in place
- complacency is reduced because risks are continuously monitored and new ways of dealing with things are considered
Measurement is an important step in any management process and forms the basis of continual improvement. If measurement is not carried out correctly, the effectiveness of the health and SMS is undermined and there is no reliable information on how well the health and safety risks are controlled.
Safety officials should be given relevant information such as industry guidance as well as:
- findings of the risk assessment and measures for protection in place
- information on any other factors affecting the health and safety of those working on the ship
- statistical information that needs to be considered when conducting risk assessments
